Calcium Malate

Calcium is recommended by all major health organizations for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. The mineral is common in dietary supplements and found in large amounts in some foods. Calcium with Vitamin D has been shown to reduce fractures by eighteen percent.

Eighty-nine percent of calcium is stored in bones, where it forms the matrix gives bone mineral hardness. The organization keeps a tight control on the amount of calcium in the blood at any given time. If there is too little calcium in the bloodstream, the parathyroid glands secrete parathyroid hormone (PTH), which releases calcium stored in bones.

It is difficult for most consumers to know what calcium supplements to buy. Calcium carbonate is the most common form of calcium in calcium supplements . But we need stomach acid to digest and absorb.

This becomes a problem as people age. As we age the amount of gastric acid decreases they produce. When the production of gastric acid drops, plus the ability to absorb calcium from calcium carbonate. Little or no stomach acid is in a maximum of twenty-one percent of people 60-69 years, thirty-one percent of those 70-79 years, and thirty-seven percent of those over the age of eighty. This rate is probably higher in people with autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease and lupus. People with low stomach acid have been shown to be at increased risk of deficiencies in vitamins and minerals.

Calcium citrate, calcium malate are better. They do not need acid in the stomach to be digested and absorbed. They do, however, provide less elemental calcium per pill than calcium carbonate, so that people may need to take more pills per day to meet their needs.